


The Wheel of Time

by ISingTheSkyElectric



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Family Bonding, Gen, Krolia (Voltron) POV, M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, Season/Series 06, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 09:46:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14952318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ISingTheSkyElectric/pseuds/ISingTheSkyElectric
Summary: She hasn't seen her son since he was a baby. He's grown so much.Time has built a gap between them. She resolves to fill it, no matter how long it takes.-------Two years of traveling, S6E2





	The Wheel of Time

**Author's Note:**

> Blame [arahir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arahir/pseuds/arahir) for this.

**Quintant One**

She is grateful the creature they’re on generates its own atmosphere. They wouldn’t have survived otherwise.

Keith next to her is stiff with the pain of all the memories revealed. The distance between them feels smaller now, shrunken by the realization that abandoning the love of her life and her son was a choice she was forced to make.

Krolia will carry that regret in her bones for the rest of her life.

“We need to find food and water,” she says, taking in the scenery around them. The ecosystem on the skin of the creature is lush and flowering. They can mostly likely survive on the plants alone, but meat is what they need to keep them healthy.

Keith stands. “Let’s start looking.”

**Quintant Two**

“Can we adopt him?” Keith asks, waving a piece of meat in front of the wolf they rescued.

Krolia swallows. “I thought that was a given, considered we saved his life.”

Keith’s smile is fleeting but wide, and it ignites something soft in her chest. She turns the meat on the stick to distract herself.

“Well, we have to name you now,” Keith tells the wolf. The wolf snatches the meat out of his hand and quickly inhales it, peering up at Keith and licking his lips when he’s finished. Keith hold out another piece of meat, a frown pulling at his features as he thinks.

Krolia lets him mull it over. The wolf has obviously latched on to Keith as much as Keith latched on to him.

“Orion,” Keith says suddenly.

Her breath hitches in her chest, memories and longing flowing through her. “Steve’s favorite constellation,” she chokes out around the emotions in her lungs. She briefly wonders how he’s coping back on Earth, with both her and their son living and flying through the stars.

Keith smiles to himself. “Shiro’s too.” His smile is soft and loving before it drops, something sad laying over his shoulders and pulling him down.

Krolia has a brief wondering thought of who this Shiro is before she pushes it aside.

**Quintant Five**

They finally find something that could consist of a shelter. It’s a rocky overhang, deep enough to give them room to sleep and store things. A small river flowing nearby becomes their source of water, even if it’s not the best option for washing themselves.

Orion has become Keith’s eternal follower. He constantly shadows her son, trotting by his side and accompanying him on his foraging and hunting missions.

She’s inordinately proud of him everytime he leaves and comes back. _He’s grown so much,_ she thinks. He’s got her face and her body shape, but his eyes are so much like his father’s that it sometimes overpowers her.

 _You would be so proud,_ she thinks to Steve, and wishes for the millionth time that he can hear her thoughts.

**Quintant Twenty-One**

They realize that they need a fireplace.

They’ve been comfortable building their fires and cooking outside. But a sudden rush of storms struck their shelter, dropping them into the dark and the wet. They tried moving their fire under the roof of the shelter, but the smoke was unable to flow out and almost burned their lungs and throats out. They spend two days in the cold and dim purple light of Keith’s suit, eating smoked meat and drinking from the rainwater caught in Krolia’s helmet.

When the rain stops and the the clouds pass, Keith darts out of the shelter. He stands soaking up what passes for sunlight as Orion runs through the drenched underbrush, fur turning damp and flattened to his body.

“We need to build a fireplace,” Krolia says, coming to stand next to Keith.

He turns to look at her with his father’s eyes. “Let’s get started.”

**Quintant Thirty-One**

It’s been almost a phoeb by the watch in her suit.

Orion has grown. He comes up to Keith’s thigh. Krolia briefly wonders how big he will get, then dismisses it. He’s Keith’s pet and friend, and Keith will never give him up no matter his size. Keith’s bones are forged in strength and his heart burns with loyalty. Breaking connections is something he will never do.

“It tastes like ramen,” Keith says, taking another bite of a newly discovered fruit. It took a quintant’s worth of exploring the nearest mountain to stumble upon it, and it had quickly become Keith’s favorite.

“Steve once gave me ramen,” Krolia mentions. “He said that it was the primary diet of young adults. It tasted bad.”

Keith gives a small laugh and Krolia burns it into her memory. “That’s the cheap packaged ramen. You have to try actual ramen. Shiro’s was delicious.”

He gives the fireplace a small private smile, eyes clouded with memories.

Krolia is learning slowly about this Shiro, little bits of information of a man that haunts her son. _Shiro’s favorite constellation is Orion. Shiro loves the color black. Shiro tried to give up coffee but could only last three days. Shiro makes delicious ramen._

Keith barely mentions anyone else besides Shiro. She wonders how much Shiro has etched himself in her son’s soul.

She wonders if Shiro knows.

**Quintant Fifty-Six**

Orion has finally stopped growing. He stands at Keith’s waist, and he’s as long as Keith is tall. Keith once mentioned in passing he looks like something called a pokemon. Apparently it’s an Earth Thing.

Keith has started mentioning Voltron. Her heart had swelled with pride and disbelief when he revealed he was the Red Paladin and had piloted the Black Lion.

This is her son, one of the greatest people in the universe. She’s so proud to be his mother.

He mentions the other paladins. Lance, with his rifle and his humor. Hunk, the mechanic and cook with a strong heart. Allura, the brave princess with magic. Coran, with his humor mixed with his caretaking. Pidge, with her technology and her family.

He always circles back to Shiro though.

Shiro. Brave. Kind. Commanding. Patient. Protective. Determined.

Shiro is the man that Keith carries in his bones. Sometimes it feels like Shiro there, a third person in their shelter. A ghost that trails behind her son, one that Keith willingly holds close.

“I’d love to meet him,” Krolia says once.

Keith grins at her and she tucks it alongside all the other times he’s smiled. “You’d love him, and he’d love you.”

Krolia is helpless, unable to not give him a smile of her own. “I look forward to it.”

**Quintant One-Hundred Forty-Seven**

Keith mentions his father once, deep in the dark of a passing storm. His voice is rough with grief. Krolia has to step out to the overhang, rain an inch from her face, and breathe and breathe around the tightness in her lungs and the anguish that etches itself in her heart.

It tucks itself next to her regret and she knows it will be there until she dies.

**Quintant Two-Hundred Twenty-Four**

Keith tries to cut his hair. It’s a sloppy mess, uneven and jagged. Krolia itches to take the knife from him and do it herself, but she holds herself back. 

Her son is independent, grown up alone with no one close in his life.

He stares at him reflection in the stillest part of the river. 

"It's not bad," she says.

"Kinda looks like Pidge's," he says, mostly to himself.

"I can try and make it better if you want." She very carefully does not say _fix it,_ doesn't imply it's awful.

"Nah." He tucks the knife away. "It'll grow back."

**Quintant Two-Hundred Eighty-One**

She teaches him how to use his blade.

He’s not bad, clearly trained by someone who knew what they were doing. It’s been so long since she held one in her hand. The Empire prefers guns over blades, leaving the swords and daggers in the far more bloody arenas.

But there are gaps in his knowledge that she works to fill. He’s a fast learner, stubborn and ambitious. He repeats the movements, barely stopping to take a break.

She learns that he’s inherited her unyielding determination.

**Quintant Three-Hundred Eleven**

They celebrate Keith’s Life Day.

They can’t have the traditional Earth Life Day celebration of cake. She teaches him the Galra traditions instead.

They hunt down a creature that Keith has named “Scorpio.” She vaguely remembers the name as constellation too. The creature is massive, at least as large as their shelter. It’s black as night, covered in large scales, and has a whip-like tail that can crush them with a single swipe.

Keith kills it with a blow to the neck that cracks armor and spills shining purple blood on the ground.

Keith stands still as Krolia swipes blood under his eyes and across his brow.

“Happy Life Day,” she says with a smile.

Keith’s is just as blinding.

They drag Scorpio back to their shelter and spend the next few days roasting the meat. Keith cleans the skull and places in a place of pride on the mantle.

**Quintant Three-Hundred Ninety-Four**

Keith stares deep into the fire. “Do they know we’re over here?”

Krolia pauses from sharpening his knife. She doesn’t have to ask who he’s thinking of.

She looks at him, taking him in. He’s taller now, filling out with the meat-heavy diet they’ve been eating. He’s growing into a strong man. “Kolivan knows. I messaged him as we traveled here. Besides, time passes differently here. What’s years here is mostly likely days to them. Your friends will be there.”

Keith’s silent, watching the fire crackle.

Krolia feels the weight of the passing time in her bones and know Keith feels it too.

**Quintant Four-Hundred Forty-Three**

“We met at high school,” Keith says suddenly.

She doesn’t have to ask who he’s talking about. Keith keeps Shiro with them through his stories.

Keith swallows another sip of soup. “He was going around the region, trying to recruit for the Garrison. He was the best in his class, recently graduated. I didn’t care.” Keith squeezes his eyes shut. “He saw me riding Dad’s hover. Caught up with me and said he loved it. Thought I could be great at the Garrison.”

His voice shakes and Krolia’s heart breaks alongside his.

“I brushed him off, but he kept coming back. He was the only one who kept coming back.”

They’re silent for the rest of the night.

**Quintant Five-Hundred and One**

Keith cuts his hair again. It goes remarkably better than the first time.

**Quintant Five-Hundred and Thirty**

“He’s amazing.” A whisper in the dark.

“You love him.”

“.... I do.” A confession.

**Quintant Five-Hundred Eighty-Nine**

Orion saves Keith’s life and Krolia is eternally grateful.

He drags her unconscious son back to the shelter where she’s chopping wood. Her heart stops and starts rapid-time. There’s a deep cut on Keith’s head, thick red blood matted in his hair.

She hasn’t felt true fear since Commander Trug’s ship, where Keith was held hostage. Her heart is burning in her chest, dread making her shake. There’s no medical supplies to help him, so she can only pray and hope he survives.

**Quintant Five-Hundred Ninety**

Keith wakes up.

She holds him tightly for ages and doesn’t let go.

**Quintant Six-Hundred Thirty-Three**

The passage of time hits Krolia in the chest when she looks at her son.

Keith’s almost as tall as her now. He’s strong, muscles built up from living this life. His gaze is steady, unflinching. If she thought he was grown man before, she was mistaken. This is Keith in the prime of his life.

She’s eternally grateful she was here for it.

But she regrets that Steve will never be able see this.

**Quintant Seven Hundred**

They pass through the tear in the fabric of space.

“Looks like we’re going through hyperspace,” Keith says with a small smile, watching the stars streaking by them through space. Krolia laughs, nostalgia running through her at the memory of watching those movies with Steve.

Her grief is still wrapped around her heart, but it’s softer now. Time and a relationship with their son has smoothed its edges.

The stars slow and stop as the creature exits the tear. A planet hovers, suspended against the black. White swirls across a deep red landscape.

“We’re here.”

**Author's Note:**

> [ I have a tumblr!](http://isingtheskyelectric.tumblr.com)


End file.
